What is this tissue tape wrapped inside a partial bolt of cloth tell me - Length? Also possible age?
- Thread starter Celia Chapman
- Start date
I would have thought that this indicated the fabric printing company, but that can't be, as the Bell Punch Company produced ticket printing machines and the like: https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Bell_Punch_Co
How long is that piece of paper and where is it wrapped around? Could it be printed on the other side? Maybe this is the end bit of a receipt or something...
As for the fabric itself - did you check if there's and information printed on the selvedges that might give a clue as to what it is? And can you tell what type of weave and material it is? Or you could try a burn test - see here: https://vintagefashionguild.org/determining-fiber/
How long is that piece of paper and where is it wrapped around? Could it be printed on the other side? Maybe this is the end bit of a receipt or something...
As for the fabric itself - did you check if there's and information printed on the selvedges that might give a clue as to what it is? And can you tell what type of weave and material it is? Or you could try a burn test - see here: https://vintagefashionguild.org/determining-fiber/
It makes sense in a way in as much as Bell Punch did indeed produce all sorts of ticker tape printing machines along with the paper and that paper ribbon does suggest ticker tape to me but I suspect has nothing to do with the manufacture of the cloth.
Does the tape run throughout the bolt?
I would think 60s cloth, Motherwell abstract pattern--maybe.
As Midge asks, has the selvedges been checked?
Does the tape run throughout the bolt?
I would think 60s cloth, Motherwell abstract pattern--maybe.
As Midge asks, has the selvedges been checked?
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Rue_de_la_Paix
VFG Member
I love that fabric, likely it is 1950s. Very mid century modern. If American, I might think even late 40s but since it is England I would go for early to mid 1950s.
I also couldn't find anything to suggest that Bell Punch Company Ltd ever printed fabrics. They do seem to have done a number of things, so I suppose it's not impossible. But also seems possible that the paper tape isn't connected to the fabric.
I was wavering between 50s and 60s. It's really great cloth.
I was wavering between 50s and 60s. It's really great cloth.
Also, 1/8 could be old pre-decimal British money - meaning 1 shilling and 8 pence.
Circa Vintage Clothing
Alumni
Agree with Ruth. I think it's a price tag.
Circa Vintage Clothing
Alumni
1/8 is how we wrote it in Australia. It's assumed you'll know what it means.
I agree they did do a lot but cloth, cor, that would be a very rare find I should think.
Fair point.
It leaves me to wonder if the supplier of the cloth was using a Punch pricing machine.
I have seen bolts of cloth in wholesalers & mills where there is a pricing ribbon that extends for a couple of folds, when its cut what is remaining is written along with the price.
1/8 is often how it would be written in the uk too. If there were no pence, one shilling would often be written as 1/- (the theatre here though shows zero pence as /0)
Cafe price list circa 1960
You see it quite often on old adverts.
I now think it's possible that it's a price tag for the cloth, and the price tag was printed by Bell Punch, but not the cloth itself. Pricing is within their remit, they did lots of adding machines and calculators, and printed transport tickets.
I'm guessing that 1 shilling and 8 pence, would be per yard?
Cafe price list circa 1960
You see it quite often on old adverts.
I now think it's possible that it's a price tag for the cloth, and the price tag was printed by Bell Punch, but not the cloth itself. Pricing is within their remit, they did lots of adding machines and calculators, and printed transport tickets.
I'm guessing that 1 shilling and 8 pence, would be per yard?
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Ah!1/8 is often how it would be written in the uk too. If there were no pence, one shilling would often be written as 1/- (the theatre here though shows zero pence as /0)
Cafe price list circa 1960
You see it quite often on old adverts.
I now think it's possible that it's a price tag for the cloth, and the price tag was printed by Bell Punch, but not the cloth itself. Pricing is within their remit, they did lots of adding machines and calculators, and printed transport tickets.
I'm guessing that 1 shilling and 8 pence, would be per yard?
And yes, per Yd. I should think, which does at least date the bolt to the 60s possibly 50s.
Is a " Batch" a sandwich?
Good question! Maybe some regional variant of a buttie?
Celia Chapman
Registered Guest
Thank you so much, so knowledgable. I unrolled the bolt it seems to indicate half a yard is 8/8ths so I assume this piece at 11 and 4/8ths is, I think, 5.75 yards. Is seems a very complicated system. There is no information on the selvedges the print is full bleed
edge to edge. Thanks for your help. Celia
Attachments
Oh so the paper is a measurement system, rather than a price tag?
I think it just got used for other things.
I remember as a nipper, 8-9 I got Saturday work around market stalls.
Some of the fabric stalls/shops, there would be a stack of cloth bolts and in my best writing and in pencil, I would measure and if there wasn't any, put a strip of paper, write price for a couple of folds, yds. at the beginning.
The idea being, price didn't change usually, yds. did and should have got scribbled out as used, never did, hence my job.
As I recall it wasn't unusual for some bolts of cloth to have this paper ribbon running through out.
Nah, just sandwich or roll size, ]I can't resist a bacon sarnie.
Pre 1970s UK, I would have thought always yards.
After decimal it took a long time for some trades to go metric and as late as 2020 some fabric wholesalers around Brick Lane, London still used yds.
I still think a batch is some kind of roll. Similar to a buttie, which I imagine is not a familiar term to you Maggie!
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